RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

lines and ranks

THE FIVE OF THEM must've slept for at least 15 hours once they were back in Alexandria. With their exhausting trials and the foot-tearing 50 mile trek back home, they were practically crawling up the front porch. 

As much as they wanted to, Daryl and Willow didn't fall asleep immediately like Bonnie and the kids had. They stayed up for numerous hours after the house fell silent, sitting in their bed with their son. He was fast asleep when they got back, and he didn't wake up when they moved him from the crib and to their bed. He was a surprisingly heavy sleeper, like his sister. When their true exhaustion set in to the point that they could hardly keep their eyes open, neither one of them wanted to put him back, so he stayed bundled up between them, and the three of them slept peacefully.

But the following morning wasn't nearly as peaceful.

Willow jolted awake, already feeling the empty spot between her and Daryl. Her eyes grazed over the small indent in the mattress and bed sheets where their son should have been.

She was practically slapping Daryl awake. "Get up, hurry!"

The sheets were torn off the bed as she jumped out of it, grabbing her knife from the nightstand. Daryl was groggy and completely out of it, and didn't begin to move nearly as quick as her until he realized their son was gone and she didn't have him.

He snatched his crossbow up from the dresser across the room, and they both were stumbling out of the door.

In less than a second, they were in the living room about to crash through the front door, but Daryl came to a quick stop at his notice of Eugene sitting on the couch.

He held their son, and it was an immediate relief.

Willow threw her knife onto the coffee table with a sigh. "Jesus, Eugene."

He looked at the both of them with tired eyes. "We keep a tight schedule around here. Now, Coco has already adapted to said schedule. I figured with another baby, there will be all hands on deck, and for that to happen, we all need to be on the same page. My page."

Upon closer examination of him, he wasn't just holding their son, but he was feeding him.

"Eugene, why are you feeding him like that?" Willow shook her head, staring at the way he had a baby bottled sticking outside of his shirt, like he was trying to imitate breastfeeding.

As serious as he ever was, he explained "There are numerous theses and research that proves a child will feed from a bottle in their early stages of life if there is just the mere perception of it being from the cows udder."

She tilted her head, and Daryl groaned.

"Not that I'm calling you a cow-" He slowly pulled their son away from his chest and handed him over to Willow. "I'll dismiss myself."

As he said he would, he quickly took the bottle out of his shirt and set it on the table and was out of their house before they could bat an eye.

Daryl and Willow took the spot on the couch that Eugene kept warm, staring at their son like they were waiting to discover something was wrong.

"He really just fed him." Willow shrugged after looking over him once more. 

"I ain't following no schedule. He's a baby, not a dog."

She nodded in agreement. "Speaking of, where is Dog?"

To answer her question, a door down the hallway opened and they could both hear the pattering of his paws on the hardwood floors. He trotted into the living room and immediately sat at their feet, sniffing them, but taking far more liking to the baby Willow held. He stretched as far as he could, stuffing his snout into the folds of the blanket that kept him warm and bundled.